Reading Material

So, Books then. (I’ll add links to these when I’ve got a graphical browser again. I’m mid-compile of Firebird on Gentoo at the moment)

I’ve just finished reading “Going Out” by Scarlett Thomas, which is a Couplandesque tale of personal discovery, focussing mainly around a character who has “XP”, a rare ailment that means he is allergic to sunlight. Like Coupland, the plot evolved very slowly for the first two thirds of the book, then rapidly picks up pace. It’s very well and somewhat transparently written – rarely does the wording interfere with the plot.

It’s an addictive book, or at least me and Lonecat both found it so, having that “One more page” quality that occasionally leads to the “Bloody hell it’s 3am” quality, and I’d recommended it to anyone who enjoys Douglas Coupland.

“Welcome To Coolsville” owes more to Jeff Noon than anything else, a tale of corperate morality in a near-future world where the corperation is your friend, trust the corperation. Some nice ideas, but not a life-changing book, though the gradual slide into “Expensesland” of one of the centrals is very well done. Recommended.

Also reading the O’Reilly XSLT book and the MYSQL reference manual. A little light reading there.

Yesterday morning, however, I started re-reading Preacher from the very beginning right though to the very end, since I recently got the last book (Thanks ccooke :-)) and then sat for a while in silence. It’s amazing. The story arc, the characters, and the gradual changes of over the previous eight books are completed and resolved totally. If you haven’t read Preacher yet run – don’t walk – to your nearest large book shop and start buying them, Or get me to lend them to you. This isn’t Sandman, this is something equally fantastic, yet completely different. And if you don’t read comics, you really ought to.